YOU ARE COME UNTO MOUNT ZION.
Hebrews 12:22 - 24 But you are come unto Mount Zion, and to the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of a New Covenant, and to the Blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
Continuing in the SECOND HALF- PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters 10:19 - 13:25
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.
In THE FIFTH WARNING
Hebrews 12:14-29
To beware of Sin and rejection of Jesus.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
You are come to Mount Zion. A traveler by train has often reached a place without his knowing that he is there. The guard, the conductor or a friend has to tell him. Often it is because that he had expected the journey to last longer. So deep is there in us the Spirit of Salvation by effort and attainment, by what we are and feel, that the rousing call is needed continually. Here you are, sooner than you thought, in very deed, come to Mount Zion! Come, let us walk about Zion, and go round about her. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion. God has made Himself known in her palaces for a refuge! Let us consider its sevenfold Glory as here set before us. And may God, in the power of His Holy Spirit within us, reveal to us what it means, that we are come to Mount Zion, that we have been made meet, fit for dwelling there, that Mount Zion is in actuality a Spiritual Reality our dwelling- place, where the powers of the Heavenly world rest upon us and work in us.
1. You are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem. Read the description of the Heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation ( 21:1-3, 10-14; 21-27; 22:1-5), and listen to the voice: Behold! the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell within them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be within them, and be their God. The Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple thereof. The Glory of God did Lighten it, and the Light thereof is the Lamb. The Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein; and His servants shall do Him service; and they shall see His face. This is the Glory to which Jesus has brought us in, when He took away the veil. In the power and experience of that Opened Way the Holy Spirit enables us to live. This is the city which Abraham looked for, which has the foundations. You are come to it. Of this city you are now a citizen. In it you can Live, for you have been brought into the Holiest, the very center of the city, the very presence of God. You are come to Mount Zion.
2. And to innumerable hosts of angels. These are they who stand around the Throne of God, and who fulfill His Will. These are they through whom the power of God works in all nature. These are they who are sent out to minister to the heirs of Salvation. With these, their worship and obedience, we are now in fellowship, doing the Will of our Father as it is done in Heaven.
3. To the general assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in Heaven. That is, the Church on earth, enrolled in Heaven, but not yet gathered in. They are the first born--- destined, as having the image of the firstborn One, to take the first place in creation among all the creatures of God (Colossians 1:15; James 1:1 8.) God keep us from despising this our birthright let us Live as God's firstborn, in Living union with all His saints on earth.
4. And to God the Judge of all. It is not only to the Living God, dwelling in the city of God, that we are come, but to Him who is Judge of all. Our redemption gives us such deliverance from sin, that we have already been admitted to the home of our Judge.
5. And to the spirits of just men made perfect. These are the saints in Heaven. There are those on earth who are called perfect ( 5:14), but these are they who, like Christ, have been wholly perfected. These spirits, too, waiting for the Salvation of the Body, belong to the Blessed fellowship to which we have been admitted.
6. And to Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant. Moses was the mediator of the covenant on Sinai; Jesus, of the Better Covenant, enacted upon Better promises. The covenant, we saw ( 8:6-13), has especially to do with our heart, with our fitness for holding intimacy and fellowship with God, with a will and a Life in perfect unison with God's Will. In Mount Zion we are come to Jesus, who, in the Authority and power of the Holy Spirit, Lives and does all His saving work within us.
7. And the Blood of sprinkling, which speaks Better than that of Abel. What a Heavenly mystery! It is not enough that for our life in the city of God we have Jesus, the Living One, as our Life; we find there too the token of His death--- the Blood of sprinkling, speaking, pleading for us each moment. Speaking, not as Abel's, of wrath, but of atonement and Eternal Redemption and Salvation. We are come to the Blood, not only as shed on earth, but as sprinkled in Heaven--- for our Boldness, our Cleansing, our Sanctification; speaking to God for us, of Peace and Love; speaking in Divine, and in Heavenly power within us.
Christian, to all this you are come. Just as sure as you are come to God in the Holiest, to dwell with Him, you are come ( The word "come" is the same as in 4:16; 7:25; 10:1, 22, draw nigh or near.) to all this, and dwell in the midst of it. God has brought you to it by the Holy Spirit, and will, by the Holy Spirit, reveal it in your heart, so that you know the things which are freely given you of God. Can it be, that any are content to sleep on, while the call is heard: You are come to the Heavenly Jerusalem--- enter in and dwell here. There is no other choice--- can it be that any will prefer to live under Sinai and its bondage as in Egypt? Can it be that any will count the price too great, and, because they love the world, refuse, with Abraham and Moses, to go out and live by faith, in this city of God. God forbid that it should be so with us. Let Zion, the city of God, with its Heavenly joy, and its beauty of Holiness, and its Eternal Life power, be the place of our abode. The Holy Spirit, sent when Jesus had entered and Opened the gates for us, brings into our hearts the very Life and Light of Heaven, brings us into the experience of it all.
1. Salvation brings to the city of God, to a fellowship of the saints, to a social life of mutual Intercourse and help. To find our happiness in the welfare of others, for the sake of Jesus Christ, is of the essence of our relationship, is a condition of the dwelling in Mount Zion.
2. I saw the New Jerusalem come down from Heaven: that took place in part on the day of Pentecost. The Kingdom of Heaven descended upon earth, in the power of the Holy Spirit, into the hearts of those praying disciples. It is only in the power of the Holy Spirit that this You are come to Mount Zion can be more than a beautiful imagination.
3. The Holy Spirit makes all the work and Glory of Jesus an inward Life in our heart. Let every word like this, You are come, that is too high for us, make us believe more firmly in His hidden inward teaching. He will work in our heart more than our mind can understand.
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